Linkage between Behavioural and Physiological Risk Factors with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Rural Varanasi, India

Introduction: Diabetes is an important public health problem,one of our priority non communicable diseases (NCDs)targeted for action by world leaders. Both the number of casesand the prevalence of diabetes have been steadily increasingover the past few decades. The global prevalence of diabeteshas nearly doubled in year 2014 since 1980, rising from 4.7%to 8.5% in the adult population. Study objective was to findout risk factors for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus among 40 yearand above in rural areas of Varanasi.Material and methods: A community based cross sectionalstudy was conducted in rural areas of Varanasi covering 40year and above. WHO, STEP approach was used for datacollection in this study. RBS and FBS blood sugar measuredand diagnosis was confirmed by WHO criteria. χ2 test wasapplied to find significant association.Results: The mean ±SD age of the study subject was55.19+11.92 years. The prevalence of smoking, alcoholintake, fruits consumption, vegetables consumption andphysical activity was 18.3%, 22.7%, 48.1%, 99.8% and 28.8%respectively. The overall prevalence of diabetes was 6.1%.The prevalence of overweight and obesity was found 15.5%and 32.5% respectively, while prevalence of hypertension was29%.Conclusion: Study showed that the association betweenphysiological risk factors such as obesity and hypertensionwith diabetes was statistically significant (p<0.05), whilebehavioural risk factors mentioned above were not statisticallysignificant (p>0.05).

Factors Associated with 10 year Risk of Myocardial Infarction and Stroke in Rural Areas of Varanasi, India

Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are a group ofdiseases that involves mainly Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)also known as Myocardial Infarction (MI) and Stroke. Thismay be caused by both Physiological and behavioural riskfactors. High blood pressure, hyperglycaemia, dyslepidemiaand obesity are physiological risk factors, while smoking, lackof exercise, unhealthy dietary practices and excessive alcoholconsumption are behavioural risk factors. Study objective wasto find out the risk factors associated with occurrence of 10year total risk of cardiovascular events (MI and Stroke) inrural areas of Varanasi District.Material and methods: This was a community based crosssectional study conducted in Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh.All population aged 40 years and above of both genderswere included in this study. Interview schedule was used tocollect the baseline data and an anthropometric measurementand World Health Organization/ International Society ofHypertension (WHO/ISH) risk prediction chart for Indianpeople was used for risk assessment of MI and Stroke.Results: The prevalence of various risk factors amongparticipants was as obesity, 32.5% (95% CI: 30.4%-34.7%);hypertension, 29.0% (95% CI: 27.0%-31.1%); diabetes 6.1%(95% CI: 5.1%-7.3%) and smoking, 18.3% (95% CI: 16.6%-20.1%). The overall prevalence of 10 year risk of MI andStroke was found 26%. Out of these 16% (95% CI: 14.0%-17.3%) and 6% (95% CI: 4.9%-7.1%) respondents were inmoderate and high risk respectively. While 4% (95% CI:3.5%-5.3%) respondents had very high risk of MI and Stroke.Age and sex were found significantly associated with the riskof MI and Stroke. Risk factors like hypertension (P<0.05,χ2=516.39), diabetes (P<0.05, χ2=53.74) and smoking(P<0.05, χ2=41.06), were also significantly associated withthe development of MI and Stroke.Conclusion: This study shows the positive significantassociation between several risk factors (i.e. age, gender,hypertension, diabetes and smoking) with 10 year risk fordeveloping MI and Stroke.

Dietary Diversity in urban geriatric subjects and it’s inter linkage with socio-demographic variables, nutritional status and household food insecurity

Background: Globally older population is at higher risk of nutritional problems. One of the significant reasons for this phenomenon is lack of Dietary Diversity which also leads to hidden hunger. With this background this study was conducted on geriatric subjects in urban Varanasi. Objectives: To assess Dietary Diversity in geriatric subjects and its interlinkage with sociodemographic variables, nutritional status and household food insecurity. Material and Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted on 616 subjects (> 60 years) selected by multistage sampling procedure from urban Varanasi adopting inclusion and exclusion criteria. After obtaining ethical approval and prior consent of subjects each study subject was specifically interviewed about different food items consumed by them over given reference period with the help of predesigned and pretested proforma. Analysis of Data: For analysis of data SPSS version 21 was used. For inferential purpose  test was used. Results: Consumption of different food items were categorized as very frequent (Daily/ three or more times a week), frequent (once or twice a week) and infrequent (once or twice a month/ occasional). Energy yielding food (wheat 2 and rice) were consumed very frequently by 100.0% and 50.5% subjects, respectively. In case of 50.6%, 27.6% and 9.4% subjects’ pulses, milk, egg were consumed very frequently whereas egg, meat and fish were never consumed by 61.9%, 65.3% and 74.0% subjects, respectively. Very frequent consumption of fruits prevailed in 22.2% subjects. Except rice similar consumption pattern was observed for pulses, milk and fruits in male and female subjects (p>0.05). Dietary Diversity of the urban geriatric subjects was far from being satisfactory and it is influenced by several factors and it is closely linked to nutritional status and food security.

Whole cell & culture filtrate proteins from prevalent genotypes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis provoke better antibody & T cell response than laboratory strain H37Rv.

Background & objectives: The immune responses to different antigens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv vary from patient to patient with tuberculosis (TB). Therefore, significant difference might be documented between the H37Rv with long histories of passages and recent clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis. In the present study, immune response of TB patients and healthy controls against 39 clinical M. tuberculosis isolates was correlated with laboratory strain H37Rv. Methods: The antibody response was studied coating whole cell extracts and culture filtrate proteins of M. tuberculosis isolates and laboratory strain H37Rv by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Lymphoproliferation was studied by incorporation of tritiated thymidine and cytokines (IFN-γ and IL-4) by using commercially available kits. Results: Sero-reactivity to whole cell extract (WCE) of 11 clinical isolates was higher with pooled serum and individual's serum from tuberculosis patients showed significant reactivity (P<0.05) to ten of these isolates using ELISA. Of the WCE of 39 clinical isolates, 10 were found to be potent inducer of lymphoproliferation as well as cytokine secretion (P<0.05) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from PPD+ healthy controls. Six culture filtrate proteins (CFPs) from these selected clinical isolates were also better inducers of antibody and T-cell response. Interpretation & conclusion: Overall, our results revealed that the clinical isolates belonging to prevalent genotypes; CAS1_Del (ST-26), East African-Indian (ST-11) and Beijing family (ST-1) induced better antibody and T cell responses compared to H37Rv laboratory strain. Further studies need to be done to purify and identify the dominant protein (s) using whole cell extract and culture filtrates from these immunologically relevant clinical M. tuberculosis isolates, which will be worthwhile to find out pathogenic factors, potential diagnostic markers and protective molecules for tuberculosis.

A simple and rapid method of sample preparation from culture filtrate of M. tuberculosis for two-dimensional gel electrophoresis

Sample preparation for Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) is tedious and not sufficient to provide a comparative profile of secreted proteins for various strains of M. tuberculosis. High lipid content in mycobacteria limits the use of common methods as it can hinder the 2DE run. This study highlights the significance of SDS-TCA procedure over common used methods for the preparation of sample from culture filtrate as well as other proteinaceous fluids.